Klarinet Archive - Posting 000160.txt from 2006/12
From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Alto vs. bassethorn
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2006 12:19:38 -0500
Richard, qhether the difference between the basset horn and alto
clarinet is one note or 50, the difference exists and it forbids
the use of the alto clarinet to play much of the basset horn
repertoire. For example, you could use an alto clarinet in the
Mozart Requiem, but not in the 2nd and 3rd basset horn parts of
the Masonic Funeral Music, or the 2nd basset part of the Gran
Partitta, the aria 'Non piu di fiori' in Titus, or in Beethoven's
Prometheus Ballet, or in most of Strauss basset horn music
inlcuding both the Happy Workshop and the Invalid's worship, etc.
etc. ad nauseam.
So, despite Richard's statement at a "slight correction," he has
none to offer. The two instruments are inherently
uninterchangable because of range. Fix the range, and you have a
different story. Don't fix the range and the alto clarinet cannot
be considered a useful substitute.
I would think that a eunuch with a slight correction could father
a child. But that correction, only just a few ounces, is not
slight from a technical point of view.
Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard [mailto:sanko@-----.edu]
Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 8:51 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: [kl] Alto vs. bassethorn
I have a slight correction to offer in connection with the alto
clarinet and basset horn discussion. Dan Leeson wrote:
But until the alto clarinet can play the full range of notes
available to a basset hornist, and in tune, it cannot compete,
and the reason is as plain as the nose on your face. One is
obliged to have available the alto clarinet equivalent of a low
C, D-flat, and D as heard on a basset horn in F.
In fact, the low Eb on an alto clarinet is the same pitch as the
low Db on a basset horn, so the alto needs only ONE additional
low note in order to have the same low range as a basset horn. I
have thought about constructing an extension for the alto that
would fit between the bell and the rest of the clarinet, with a
tone hole and pad. Never got around to actually making one.
Anyone care to give it a try? ---Richard
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